Company fashion forum

Last Wednesday I went to Company's Fashion Forum at Hackney's Picture House. Recently finishing Uni  my life  is now consumed with job applications, CVs and student withdrawals  My friend Steph and I decided to check it out to help us on our mission for our dream job but also decided it would be a great excuse for a catch up since leaving our student home.

Picture courtesy of company.co.uk

It came around so quickly I wasn't really sure what to expect. It all started with a welcoming glass of champers in the bar upstairs and some sociable mingling....with a stuffed buffalo  The crowd then seemed to move and we were swept into one of the screens. Steph and I got a little excited at the prospect of being back in a student esque atmosphere; lots of girls sat in a room similar to a lecture room note books at hand, 5 professionals with a mic and a slideshow behind them. Missing Uni life? Just a tad. The only difference was an amazing goodie bag on each of our seats, now that was definitely something my University could have invested in.

Now call me sad but I was already feeling a bit star struck seeing the lovely Victoria, editor of Company magazine. After tweeting about earlier in the day in which she replied I got all excited seeing someone who I aspire to be as successful as. I always knew I was going to be a career headed women when I grew up. I like to succeed and talk about anything to do with what I want to be, how I am going to do it and all the possibilities along the way so a lecture type talk with some high street experts was right up my street.

The professionals giving their advice were Mandy Heasman, Senior VM from Misselfridge, Sarah Walsh, Oasis Buying Director, Aradia Crockett Freelance Stylist,  Jamique Campbell from IPR public relations and jewellery designer and blogger Fred Butler. Victoria talked through each of the industry experts on their success stories, tips and advice for all us budding fashion girls in the audience.

Picture courtesy of company.co.uk

Admittedly I felt a bit old when some of the girls in the audience started asking Uni choice related questions. I wanted to pipe up and go, 'I know, been there, done that!' and thought, should I be here? So I put up my hand straight away in hope to ask a question for all us graduates out there (also to secretly get noticed). I always remember being told to ALWAYS ask questions, its one of the easiest ways to stand out, show your passionate and confident.

So what did I ask? "Iv'e just graduated and been noticing a lot of entry level positions in PR are asking for 1 year or more experience. I've done about 5 months of work experience and live outside London so can't really afford to do any more. When is enough, enough? and should I go for these jobs despite not having a full years experience?" Or something like that...

After, I thought I must sound a bitter graduate in which me and Steph laughed over afterwards but I believe it was a really important question and was something I was adamant to get some industry views on. Victoria had already touched on how people who can't afford to come to London can go about getting valuable work experience which I thought was an excellent point to cover, so I was glad I could cover this for graduating students.

The panel mainly agreed that this is not something they have come across and basically said I shouldn't be phased and to go for it no matter what, which I guess was like a big hug and telling me, you are doing ok! Which honestly, was just what I needed.

It was great listening to the experts advice and I thought I'd share with you some of the top things I thought were the best pieces of advice:

• Always find out a name to send your letter to and make it personal ' I love this shoot you did or I love this client of yours because of this' 
• Choose people that inspire you.
• You don't have to go to London for experience - approach a local store and suggest starting up a twitter feed, join your student paper or team up with your friends that are MUA or photographers as they will be the future talent.
• Stand out - write a funny, catchy subject line 'Makes great coffee' or even write a hand written note - everything is done by email these days so it would be refreshing.
• Be keen and enthusiastic but not annoying - keep in touch with your connections for future opportunities.
• Work hard and be friendly - it will go a long way.
• Work experience is vital - you can still get a job in journalism from work experience even if your degree wasn't journalism or even if you don't have one.
• If you do go to University, do your homework, look out for ones that have industry experts teaching or guests.
• Social media is a great tool to look out for jobs and opportunities
• Manage up - go with solutions not problems
• Fashion isn't as glamorous as you think - you need to get down with the dirty first.

Afterwards there was the opportunity to mingle with the guest pannel in the bar which unfortunately we had to miss. I was pretty gutted about this as I love networking but if we hadn't have left when we did we would have missed the last trains home! Ideally we should have stayed the night in London but with us both working lots recently we failed to plan. A failure to plan = plan to fail. Dammit.

Overall the night was a huge success and a great help to all us fashion hopefuls. Steph and I agreed that for us it was really mainly inspirational and comforting to know that we are doing everything we can and are on the right track. I loved being part of the night and look - even managed to make into a photo on the Company website (cream blazer with an engaging look into the question at hand - cringe!). 

Picture courtesy of company.co.uk

Great night, thank you Company! xx